A Cambridge don who was barred from lecturing has inspired the founding of an underground society of students dedicated to recreating his eccentric classes.
Dr Piers Bursill-Hall, who has lectured on the ethics and history of maths at the university for 40 years, was removed from lecture lists without consultation last month. It prompted his acolytes to set up the Cambridge University History of Maths Society, covering subjects such as the role that maths played in the Islamic Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and the invention of the telephone.
Bursill-Hall’s well-attended lectures were removed after opinion in the maths department turned against him and his subject, according to the student newspaper Varsity. In 2018, the status of Bursill-Hall’s lectures was downgraded from “non-essential” to “not arranged by the faculty”. Last month, the lectures were removed altogether.
The guerrilla society was set up last week. Students said that Bursill-Hall had broadened their horizons and given them perspective on a subject most often concerned with the abstract.
Using a mailing list set up by the students, students receive Zoom links for lectures, blog posts and invitations for social gatherings. Proposed lecture topics include Galileo and the church, ancient Greek science, and maths in the renaissance. Activities such as smoking and the attendance of pets, which would see students reprimanded in their normal classes, are encouraged.
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David Bai, the society’s president, said that the don’s lectures “have been some of my fondest moments in Cambridge” and were “filled with hilarious jokes, witty anecdotes and jaw-dropping historical facts. I used to be one of those, ‘mathmos [Cambridge slang for maths students] should just do maths’ people, but now I realise that this exposure to history and philosophy is also necessary.”.
Bai said that Bursill-Hall was “delighted” by the society, which has more than 100 members signed up on its internal chatroom.
The society’s course description reads: “This is a fairly relaxed overview of the history of mathematical ideas, from (western) ancient civilisations to the Enlightenment; a separate set of lectures (inevitably a little bit more technical) are occasionally given in Easter Term on some aspects of 19th-century mathematics.
“The course presumes no particular or strong mathematical background (but I do assume most of the students are mathmos or equivalent), and is more about mathematical ideas and styles, and the historical influences on, and influences of mathematics on its contemporary world. A good sense of humour is required... The traditional requirement that students bring food and drink to my lectures is maintained for Zoom lectures.”
